


first day of forever

by mutents



Series: look upon this fine collection [3]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 09:06:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12861294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mutents/pseuds/mutents
Summary: Setting his box on his hips, Combeferre fumbled with the small envelope with his keys in it.





	first day of forever

Setting his box on his hips, Combeferre fumbled with the small envelope with his keys in it.

"Need any help?" Guenièvre asked, setting her box down at her feet and reaching out for the box that her older brother was holding.

"Thank you," Combeferre murmured, finally grabbing the keys and sticking one in the lock, turning it only to realize that the door was already open. Sighing, he pocketed the key and twisted the handle. The dull roar that had been going on paused as Combeferre stepped into the room. For such a small room, he was already impressed by how many the room could hold. Three teenagers were sitting on a futon beneath the bed, while two adults were filling a fridge with drinks and snacks. Standing in front of the closet was the guy Combeferre was guessing was his roommate.

"Oh, hey!" The other guy said, hanging up the Hawaiian shirt in his hands and moving over to Combeferre. "You must be Sacha!"

"I prefer Combeferre..." He whispered, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"That's chill; I go by my last name, too. Adalberto de Courfeyrac at your service, though if you call me Adalberto you will get nothing from me," Courfeyrac said with a grin.

Combeferre couldn't help but smile himself. From the hallway behind him he heard his sister clear her throat, and remembering what he was here for, he quickly turned and took the box back from Guenièvre. "Sorry, Gwen."

She simply shrugged, reaching down and picking her own box back up.

Turning back to the room, Combeferre saw that Courfeyrac was holding the door open. Giving him a nod, Combeferre stepped into the room and moved to set his box on the empty bed next to the door.

"Would you like any help with your boxes?" The older woman asked, stepping towards him. "We brought these three for their fantastic pack mule abilities," she continued, grinning at the other three kids. The two girls chuckled while the boy rolled his eyes, a fond expression on his face.

"Dad was hoping to get your help with the desktop," Guenièvre said. "And mom still has all of your suits."

The three kids stood up, moving to the door. "Where's your car parked?" One of the girls asked, grabbing the keys that were sitting on her brother's desk.

"Uhh, in the south parking lot," Combeferre said. "It's a pale blue van. Guenièvre?"

"I'll show them," she said, setting her box on the bed as well.

The kids gave a nod, filing out of the room.

"So what are you studying, Combeferre?" Courfeyrac's father asked, pushing himself to his feet, and moving to help Combeferre with one of the boxes.

"Nursing, Sir."

"José."

"Hmm?"

"I hate being called 'sir.' Makes me feel like I'm still at work."

"Of course. So, what do you do for a living?"

"I'm a judge. Dreamed of being one for years; of course I did my time in front of the bench; was a district attorney after college until just a few years ago. That's how I met Louisa - she's was working as a court transcriber and working her way through college. Love at first sight, at least for me."

Courfeyrac's mother chuckled. "I thought he was an annoying hot shot convinced of his own brilliance," she said, then turned to look at her husband. "It was absolutely love at first sight."

Combeferre couldn't help but notice that Courfeyrac had a smile on his face as his parents reminisced about their relationship. It was amazing how close of a family they were.

* * *

It was several hours later, and just Courfeyrac and Combeferre were left in the room. Courfeyrac's family had left after Combeferre had emptied his cardboard boxes, taking both his and Courfeyrac's as they left, much to Combeferre's surprise. Courfeyrac had gone down to their car with them, and didn't come back for almost fifteen minutes. When he did, it looked like he had been crying. Combeferre's parents had left shortly after that, saying they're goodbyes in the hallway.

"You've got quite the family," Combeferre said as he was setting up his desktop.

"They're the best," Courfeyrac said, not looking away from the Xbox he was setting up. "There's another three of them, but they're all older. I'm smack dab in the middle. If you want to, I've got a picture on my desk of us all."

"Yeah, I've got another sister, but she had work today, so she stayed back," Combeferre said as he rolled his desk chair over to the other boys desk. It was obviously from Courfeyrac's graduation party, all of them were dressed up with broad smiles on their faces, and Courfeyrac stood in the middle, holding his mortarboard. "You guys seem pretty close."

"Oh, yeah. Only Rosa, the oldest of us, went through a rebellion phase, and it hardly lasted three months." Courfeyrac paused, glancing over at Combeferre. "Holy shit, is that Alienware?"

Combeferre nodded, hitting the power buttons on the tower and the screen. "Graduation present from my sister's and my best friend; they pooled there money together. Technically, Enjolras was paying for most of it. His parents are super rich; like paying for the entirety of his college rich. You'll probably meet him at some point; he's going here as well."

"That's awesome! But why aren't you rooming with him?"

"My parents really wanted us to have different roommates, so we could get the full college experience."

"Chill. Yeah, I've got a friend from camp going here, too. We would have been roommates, but the idiot didn't tell me he was going here until we'd already been given our assignments."

Combeferre nodded, logging onto the school's WiFi before turning his screen off and turning to face Courfeyrac. "So what's your major?"

"Social work and pre-law. I'm hoping to do so time in family court before becoming a judge, kind of like my dad did? My mom was hoping I'd take her path and do Accounting, but she wasn't terribly surprised when I told her my plan. I've always loved kids, and I'm sure you;ll figure out pretty fast that I'm rather... Well, Marius - that's my camp friend, the one who's going here, too - he always says that I'm extremely verbose. And, I mean, he's definitely not wrong. The first time we met I did literally all of the taking. Of course, he was crying at the time, because he was super homesick and had wanted to spend the summer studying Chinese instead of going to camp. It's actually kind of surprising that I talk as much as I do, considering how many siblings I have. Josephine - she's a year older than me - always says that she can't get a word in edge wise when I'm around, and she's not wrong. But, she also doesn't talk very much herself, so it's not like we were fighting to talk. Honestly, most of my siblings are pretty quiet. Well, except for Theresa. She was here today, the one in the green beanie and yellow shirt? Yeah, she'd the youngest so she could get kind of talkative herself. Not that I minded, of course. The two of us had a ton of conversations about stuff. In fact, she and Josephine were the first people I told when I got a leading role. "I'm sure you find it shocking, right - me, a theater kid? I totally don't seem the type, right? I hope you know I'm saying that with every ounce of sarcasm I have in my body. Carlos, my older brother, he always tells me that my sarcasm is going to get me into trouble someday, and he's probably right. Knowing my luck, first day in the courtroom and I'll be held in contempt. Anyway, yeah, my ninth grade year I was cast as Firmin in our production of The Phantom of the Opera - which was awesome; Phantom is like my fourth favorite musical, behind The Music Man, The Baker's Wife, and Hamilton. Do you know what dorm you're friend is in, because we could totally go and visit him if you'd like? Or you could go alone, and I could go see Marius. He's in Hubert Hall."

Combeferre stayed quiet, looking at Courfeyrac with shock. He was pretty sure he'd never said that many words at one time outside of giving speeches for class. When he finally recovered, he didn't get to say anything before there was a knock on his door.

"I'll get it!" Courfeyrac exclaimed, leaping to his feet and quickly opening the door. "Hi!" He exclaimed to the person there, who Combeferre could recognize from the curly blonde ponytail.

"Is Combeferre here?" Enjolras asked, his voice short and clipped.

"Let him in, Courfeyrac; this is the friend I was talking about."

"Oh, hey! I'm Adalberto de Courfeyrac, but you can call me Courfeyrac. Or Courf. Both work," Courfeyrac said, holding the door open for Enjolras, who dropped onto Combeferre's bed right away.

"I have the worst roommate, ever," Enjolras said, his voice muffled by the pillow he was lying on top of.

"What makes you say that?" Combeferre asked, standing from his desk and moving to work on all of these clothes on top of the dresser that still had to be put away.

"So, I open the door, right?" Enjolras said, turning onto his back and looking up at the ceiling. "Entire room reeks of pot. He's not even there, but there's already a bra hanging from his bedside lamp, and a porn rag open on his bed. It's not like I care that he was masturbating, but the consumption of porn is extremely harmful to the women in the business. Pornography takes advantage of..."

"The very woman that it employs," Combeferre finished. It was an old discussion, one that Enjolras had used several times in high school when the other boys would talk about porn.

"Have you met him yet?" Courfeyrac asked, working on the plugging in his Xbox One. After several seconds of silence, he looked up at Enjolras, who was glaring at him. "Right... Sorry. I'll shut up now."

"No, it's okay," Combeferre said, giving Enjolras a stern look. "Not only do you live here as well, but it's also a valid question."

Enjolras sighed. "Sorry," he said, giving Courfeyrac a nod and receiving a shrug in return. "And to answer your question, no I have not. But I can already tell it's going to be a disaster." Enjolras sat up, crossing his arms. "I really wish we could have just been roommates."

"Who knows, Enjolras," Combeferre said, hanging up the first of his many blazers. "If you havent officially met him, you really shouldn't draw conclusions. He could end up being a great guy."

Enjolras simply snorted in response.

"So how long have you two been friends?" Courfeyrac asked, pushing himself to his feet and settling onto his faux leather recliner.

"Forever," Combeferre replied.

"That's a mighty long time."

Combeferre snorted at the song reference, while Enjolras picked up the narrative. "We grew up next to each other. Been friends since our parents could arrange playdates."

"That's awesome! I wasn't really super close to anyone back home. Like they were all pretty chill and stuff, and I hung out with almost every one. But best friends... Well, I guess Marius is the closest I have to one of those."

"Ah," Enjolras said, nodding at Courfeyrac. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Enj made eye contact with Combeferre, who made a motion with his hand to keep talking. "And how did you meet Marius?"

Courfeyrac gave him a big grin. "At camp! Went to the same one for like a decade. Well, technically only seven years, but it honestly feels like I've known him forever. He was the first number I programmed onto my phone, the first person I added on Snapchat and Facebook, and the only person under 70 that I Skype. He's a massive dork, but he also has a massive heart, so it balances out. What are you studying?"

"Pre-law. My dad wants me to take over his law firm, but I'm planning on joining a pro-bono firm."

"That's fucking awesome!" Courfeyrac exclaimed, jumping up and joining Enjolras on the bed. "I'm pre-law, too, so I bet we'll have a ton of classes together. I'm also a social work major; I'm hoping to do a stint in family court and then become a judge."

Combeferre could tell the exact second when Enjolras warmed up to Courfeyrac; as soon as he'd said "social work," Enjolras was sold.

"That's great!" Enjolras said, giving Courfeyrac a tentative smile. What classes do you have this semester?"

Courfeyrac stood up, grabbing his phone from his pocket before sitting back down. "Well, I've got Theater 101 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from nine to ten..."

Combeferre tuned the other two out as they discussed class schedules and post-college plans, focusing on finishing up with his clothes. As he worked, he couldn't help but smile to himself.

It was going to be an amazing year.


End file.
